Menu

February 12th – 18th

The Valley Nerd Watch!

If you know of any way that a person could make a living playing Monster Hunter literally all day please get in touch with us it’s urgent.

This week we want to highlight some really neat Easthampton ❤ Valentine’s Day Events <3!

First off: Check out Chuck Fosman at Comics N’ More in Easthampton! He’s the cartoonist behind the comic turned hit Netflix show “The End of the Fucking World”! You’ll get to have books signed, hear cool behind-the-scenes stories, and hang out! It’s 6pm to 9pm!

Second: Wednesday Games at the Brass Cat! This week they’re doing Robo Rally, which is so danged fun you simply must give it a shot. That’s 7pm to 11pm!

As always, you should head to Nerd Nite NoHo this Monday at the World War 2 Club in Northampton! We’re going to start talking heist movies and social media faux pas at around 7:00pm, and there will be cookies!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Join the Museum of Fine Arts pastel demonstrator Gregory Maichack as he shows everyone how to create an Impressionist pastel painting! He’ll share his water garden photos that he took on site at Monet’s home studio and will paint with you from the same imagery that Monet famously used! But better. But like, he’ll help you out! All supplies provided, advanced registration required!

Local writer and veteran Eric Wasileski will lead a writing workshop! Military veterans and their families are very welcome, though the event is also open to the public. Warrior Writers works to build a community that allows for artistic expression and helps people witness the full range of military experiences.

All people who identify as women are invited to the Mead for a look at some of the favorite gals in the collection! There will be waffles and informal conversation inspired by the exhibition “Fragmented Identities: The Gendered Roles of Women in Art Through the Ages”, and led by the women who make up the Mead’s curatorial, education, and programming departments. Also there are good odds it’ll wind up an impromptu Parks & Rec fan meetup.

Students from a course at the Mead have brought forward their top picks for a new work to put up in the Mead, join to hear some short talks and pick a favorite! The Mead will purchase whatever wins the popular vote, and sink the rest of the works into the sea.

Learn about the way that Emily Dickinson used her flower collection! This discussion led by Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Professor of American Studies at Amherst College, will focus on how Dickinson used her words to cross time and space! Wait this isn’t the Doctor Who meetup is it?

Board Games:

Play fun board games at a nice bar! Local board game evangelist Justin Dowd will help lead you through a great new featured game every week and there are a ton more available to play! This week’s featured game is Robo Rally, which is a spectacular game! It’s like a simultaneous programming challenge!

Play boardgames with friends and soon-to-be-friends as well as some of the friendly staff at Modern Myths! It’s a great night to try out something you may have been meaning to check out! We really recommend Clank! or Not Alone if they’ve got those!

Card Games:

Draft cards, play magic, win prizes! A $16 entry fee includes tax, and gets you 3 booster packs to draft with, and adds a pack to the prize pool! Everyone gets at least 1 prize pack, and extra packs and foil cards will be awarded for exceptional play!

Comic Books:

From the description: “Join us for an intimate evening with cartoonist Chuck Forsman, creator of the hit NETFLIX show “The End of the XXXXing World”. Chuck will be here signing copies of the newest printing of the collected TEOTFW, sharing anecdotes from the production, and just kinda chilling. There will also be snacks. Possibly beer.”

Every second Monday of the month, this monthly support group for women on the autism spectrum meets to discuss a variety of issues and ways to deal with them. Please register at http://www.aane.org/events/!

Thursday, February 15th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Tibetan Community of Western MA

From the site: “Prayers for long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and world peace. Free and open to the public.” Make some connections with the Tibetan community of Western MA!

Hear area legislators give a summary of their accomplishments in 2017 and their outlook for the coming year! It will feature Senator Stan Rosenberg, and State Representatives Peter Kocot (First Hampshire District), John Scibak (Second Hampshire District) and Stephen Kulik (First Franklin District). Get involved in your community!

Talk about your current projects, bring up problems and provide solutions, and then brainstorm new topics! Plus, they’ve got official sponsorship now! That means big new things on the horizon, along with a bunch of new members! Bring a laptop!

Entertainment:

Learn about electric vehicles that are currently available! Learn how to match a vehicle with your driving needs! Learn how to charge one, how to pair EVs with home solar, and costs and incentives for buying one! It’s a good way to think about how to make a necessary new car purchase as non-terrible for the world as you can manage.

Anime is an art form that we have scattered experience with but a lot of people wicked like. The nice part about anime is that you pretty much only need to pick one show and you’ll have 11,000 hours to get through. We once started watching One Piece, saw it had 500 30-minute episodes, and slowly walked into the sea.

Dramatic readings by professional actors, bringing to life excellent short stories! Myka Plunkett will be reading “The Lone Pilgrim” by Laurie Colwin, and Troy David Mercier will be reading stories from “Man Seeking Woman” by Simon Rich! The tough part is after the event you need to deal with the rampaging stories that were so foolishly brought to life!

Kids:

A gorgeous book about love, starring sixteen animals and sixteen languages! From Czech to American Sign Language, animals will spell out “I Love You!” Learn the language of love: language! Create your own word-pictures, and get your book signed! Intended for ages 5-10!

Join Jeantte Bradley as she reads from her debut book “Love, Mama”, and shares an art project that children can complete! They’ll decorate a small box to mail their own special things in, which is both decorative and useful!

Movies:

Alice Tregay was one of the ordinary people who worked hard to change the world for the better. She spent decades fighting for human rights, and this will be a chance to learn more about her! Ask the filmmaker questions after the screening!

WATCH THE MOVIE FIRST! Then come here and talk about the movie! This is the first feature length film from Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer. It was made in 1988 and appears to be a nightmare brought to life, in a combination of stop motion animation and real actors and again literal nightmares. You can use your library card to check it out on Kanopy! https://forbes.kanopystreaming.com/video/alice

Hosted by Eleanor Finley, U Mass. PhD candidate in Anthropology, this film is a documentary about the radical-feminist-anarchist democracy that formed in Rojava Syria. It’s told through the eyes of a British diplomat as he explores a culture that in which he finds a lot to admire. Interesting as heck, neat to have a local expert around to talk to as well!

RPGs:

A monthly D&D club for players 8-12! You can become a member of this club by prepaying $50. That gets you help with creating a character, a mini, a custom D&D session, and a set of dice! It’s the perfect way to play a fun game with friends! We recommend you play a bard. Actually everyone should play as a bard and you should be adventurers by day and a traveling band by night!

Play one of the classic RPGs at Modern Myths! New players are always welcome, and there’s a friendly crowd there every week! We recommend playing fast and loose, since it’s a drop-in drop-out game, so worst case you can come back in a few months with your bard’s ‘long-lost uncle who’s also secretly a god’.

Play a game where you pretend to be another person! That covers a pretty wide range, so we don’t know exactly what’ll be up here but for some reason most of these games involves swords and dragons at some point. Even if someone tells you you’re going to be playing an RPG about minding a small convenience store, take a few levels in Longswords just in case.

From the description: “The Lollipops are a team of teen superheroes, who ran off to outer space on a rescue mission. Players take on the role of characters similar to the Teen Titans or the New Mutants who get involved in adventures on an intergalactic scale. We are using FATE rules, which are very simple and allows a lot of player control over the developing story. All materials provided, including pre-generated characters. This is a long running game, but new players are encouraged to come join. We are very LGBTQ-friendly.”

Science:

Monday, February 12th

World War 2 Club [50 Conz St., Northampton, MA] at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Nerd Nite NoHo: Social Media and Heists!

Two excellent talks! Joe Van Ellen will present ‘Heist, Heist Baby (Too Bold, Too Bold): A discussion on caper culture, and certainly not an outline on how to plan and execute your own successful swindle’ and then Ebru Kardan will present ‘Don’t #AskMeAnything: A review of social media fails and blunders by people who should know better’! A wonderful night with wonderful people!